Jenna Torres

About Jenna Torres

Ask singer-songwriter Jenna Torres what she does for a living, and she’ll tell you she sells hope. It’s the perfect job description for an artist who kicked off her music career as a struggling single mom penning songs while working a day job just blocks from Ground Zero in the desolate months after 9/11.

“Songwriters don’t necessarily write about what we have,” says Jenna. “We write about what we long for.”

Love. Passion. Strength. Grace. In the years to come, Jenna was to write about it all on a musical journey that would take her from New York to Nashville. A 9-song demo of those early Ground Zero songs caught the ear of legendary music executive Judy Stakee, earning her a publishing deal with Warner Music Group and Warner/Chappell. Jenna penned the anthem “Proud” for the Weather Girls’ Martha Wash and co-wrote the For King & Country hit “Busted Heart” (alongside Ben Glover), landing the song the Top 10 on the Billboard Christian Hot 100, AC, and CHR charts.

Next, Jenna set out on a solo career, releasing a string of albums including A Woman’s Touch, Wild Sugar, and All Heart, and garnering acclaim from media outlets such as American Songwriter, No Depression, Maverick, The Boot, Mother Church Pew, Paste Magazine, and Music & Musicians.

For her forthcoming album, Tennessee Heat, Jenna continues to offer hope, albeit interwoven with heartache, gratitude, and a strong dose of reality. The writing and recording sessions occurred after over a year of covid lockdowns and precautions. For Jenna, it was exhilarating to come together in person with her friends to make music after being isolated for so long.

The songs chosen for the album, which was produced by Nashville’s Charlie Chamberlain, show the full spectrum of Jenna Torres as a woman and artist. A master songstress, she builds bridges to her listeners by telling stories about her own experiences and aspirations. This includes steamy love affairs, as explored in the title track — a sultry stomper that doubles as a stunning love letter to the state where Jenna splits time with her home in New York City. Jenna also turns up the heat for the previously-released “Tell Me In Kisses,” the country-rocker “Stirrin’ Embers,” and “Fool Me,” which features Steeldrivers lead singer Matt Dame.

Jenna also made the choice to sing with unflinching honesty about her own personal struggles. “Your Time To Fly” gently frames the grief and uncertainty of losing a loved one. In “Private War,” a song Jenna admits almost didn’t make it on the record, the pain resonates through her vocal performance.

"One of the things I love most about songwriting is that it gives me permission to be as honest as I can be,” Jenna says. “In life, I try to put my best face forward, but there are times when I might be crying myself to sleep. I want my listeners to know that it’s OK to be strong and fragile simultaneously.”

Meanwhile, “Can’t Tell A River,” a gospel-inspired ballad, sees Jenna preaching acceptance of things that simply can’t be changed.

Acceptance doesn’t mean hopelessness, however. Through it all, Jenna returns to the same spring of hope that has always inspired her creativity and her life. Co-written with Brad Sample, “Just A Mountain” features beautiful mandolin, warm vocals, and a powerful message: the course of your life isn’t defined by whether you’re going to have mountains to climb; it’s defined by how you deal with them.

Jenna hopes the song will help her fans feel less alone in facing challenges.

“I know how hard life can be ,” she says. And even though it often feels like we’re doing it alone. I like to believe we’re all putting one foot in front of the other and making it up the mountain together.”

Spirituality and gratitude for life’s experiences are also sources of hope and healing for Jenna. Backed by a choir of voices singing to the heavens, she explores the former in “Prayers Up.” The bittersweet “God Speed” finds the singer traveling the high road, wishing the best while letting go of a love that was "meant to belong to a single season.” It’s a sentiment echoed in “Chattahoochee,” a song about moving on without resentment when a relationship has run its course.

"For better and worse, I live in a world of feelings and there is no better home for them than in a song,” Jenna says. “The way I see it, I have to feel it to heal it, and I can't help but want to share that in my songs!”

The tracks on Tennessee Heat offer encouragement to the listener to embrace hope, change and everything life has to offer.